A small town girl from Nova Scotia, now living in the big city of Toronto.

Friday, May 29, 2015

THE GREAT CANADIAN BIRD-A-THON

Getting some much needed food & coffee at Cora's after birding almost 5hrs straight.

Rob and I did The Great Canadian Bird-a-thonon Tuesday, May 18th. We had just started our 2 week "stay-cation" and knew we had already missed a lot of the migrating birds. We decided to stay local for our bird-a-thon for two reasons; 1. It stayed with our stay-cation theme. 2. We were curious how many species we could get staying local.

Our day started at 5am and we did most of our birding at Colonel Samuel Smith Park, which is less then 8km from our home. After we left there we refueled at Cora's and hit a few green spaces within walking distance of our house. We set a modest goal of 50 species for ourselves, and were pleasantly surprised to end the day with 66 species. Remember, we didn't travel far from our west end Toronto home. We could of easily hit the 70 mark if some of the birds we were expecting to see had of shown themselves; Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Great Blue Heron, Cedar Waxwing and our local Eastern Screech Owl. We hit our 50 species goal at our first stop, Colonel Samuel Smith Park, after birding close to 5hrs straight.

Our first bird of the day was a Red-winged Blackbird, and our last birds of the day were Wood Ducks. My highlight bird of the day was a Canada Warbler because I had not seen one in a few years and I got great looks at him. Rob's highlight birds were Great Crested Flycatcher and Indigo Bunting, simple because they were seen within easy walking distance of our house, and it gave him hope that he would one day be able to add them to our "Backyard Bird List".

Please see species count list below and enjoy a few pics from our day. Click on the pics to enlarge.

1. Red-winged Blackbird

2. American Robin

3. Tree Swallow

4. Ring-billed Gull

5. Mourning Dove

6. Chickadee

7. Yellow Warbler

8. Grackle

9. Brown-headed Cowbird

10. Warbling Vireo

11. Baltimore Oriole

12. Chestnut-sided Warbler

13. Downy Woodpecker

14. Hairy Woodpecker

15. Redstart

16. Gray Catbird

17. Canada Warbler

18. Black-and-white Warbler

19. Philadelphia Warbler

20. Northern Parula

21. American Crow

22. Veery

Female Redstart

Baltimore Oriole

Yellow Warbler

Tree Swallow

23. Least Flycatcher

24. Wilson's Warbler

25. Willow Flycatcher

26. Magnolia Warbler

27. Cormorant

28. Northern Cardinal

29. Great Crested Flycatcher

30. Canada Goose

31. Yellow-rumped Warbler

32. Blackburnian Warbler

33. Swainson's Thrush

34. European Starling

35. Blue Jay

36. Chipping Sparrow

37. House Sparrow

38. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

39. Song Sparrow

40. Mute Swan

41. Common Tern

42. Eastern Kingbird

43. Orchard Oriole

44. Barn Swallow

Magnolia Warbler

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

45. Red-necked Grebe

46. Eastern Wood-Pewee

47. American Goldfinch

48. Coopers Hawk

49. Mallard Duck

50. Common Yellowthroat

51. Chimney Swift

52. Turkey Vulture

53. Peregrine Falcon

54. Killdeer

55. Northern Flicker

56. Red-tailed Hawk

57. Northern Mockingbird

58. Kingfisher

59. Indigo Bunting

60. Rose-breasted Grosbeak

61. Rock Pigeon

62. House Finch

63. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

64. Red-eyed Vireo

65. Purple Finch

66. Wood Duck

Red-necked Grebe

Peregrine Falcon at our local nest site, they have 4 chicks this year.

Wood Ducks, for "Wood Duck Alfie!"

Alas, no Eastern Bluebirds on our species list, but we weren't expecting to have one. But, the real point of the bird-a-thon is to raise money for Bird Studies Canada, and we did! Thanks to you we raised over $1000!!! And a quarter of the funds raised will go directly to the Ontario Eastern Bluebird Society.

1 comment:

Me and My Blog

My blog is a place for me to share my love of nature and birds, tell you about fun nights out with friends and share my thoughts on a variety of topics. Happily married for five years but together for forteen. I lead an active social life, and have an amazing circle of girlfriends. Rob and I spend a lot of our free time on birding and nature trips, it's our favorite thing to do! I hope you enjoy this little glimpse into my life. Thanks for stopping by and please visit again soon.

Cheers,~Angie

PS: Rob takes most of the bird/nature shots, he wanted me to tell you that.

HELPFUL BLOG TIPS :

1. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

2. Any coloured words in the blog posts are direct links to whatever it is I'm writing about.Bird Life List Now at 259 Species.